Stock Market Hacker ‘Earns’ $141,500 In 15 Minutes

A Russian hacker took his skills to market, the stock market. According to the Security Exchange Commission said that his scheme cost the market $600,000 and left the hacker with a profit of over $250,000.

The SEC froze the assets of the hackers apparent front company, Bronco Investments after catching on.

The scheme was an ingenious one — changing the price of stocks on small trading spots, then selling his own stocks on bigger sites when other people jumped on the rising prices.

Broco would purchase these and other stocks in its own portfolio and immediately place unauthorized buy orders at inflated prices of the same securities in hacked Scottrade accounts, the SEC said.

“Immediately or shortly thereafter, the defendants capitalized on the artificially inflated share prices of the targeted securities by selling the shares previously acquired in their account,” the SEC alleged. “In other instances, the defendants profited by covering short positions previously established in their account while placing unauthorized sell orders through the compromised accounts at substantially lower prices.”

The scam is just one in a series of pricey incidents that have spawned from the proliferation of online trading worldwide.